HORRY COUNTY, S.C. (WBTW) – A 6-year-old boy from Ohio, who is deaf, recently lost his cochlear implants in the ocean while visiting Myrtle Beach with his family, but two other visitors were able to find them and help the boy hear the ocean again.
Greyson Coffmon’s family was recently on their annual family vacation at Ocean Lakes Family Campground when he went to the beach before his mother could secure his two cochlear implants to his swim shirt.
He got caught in a wave, and both his implants fell into the water.
“It was instant panic for me,” Ashley Coffmon, Greyson’s mother, said. “Honestly, I was devastated because those were his first set. He was implanted at 9 months old.”
When they couldn’t find the implants, Ashley posted on Facebook, hoping someone would find them and return them to Greyson.
Tricia Stephens of Virginia, who was staying at the nearby Lakewood Camping Resort, said she she saw Ashley’s post and kept Greyson’s implants in the back of her mind. A day later, she was on a mission to find sharks’ teeth on the beach, when she came across one of the missing implants — one mile from where they had been lost.
“I looked down, and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh. This isn’t a shark tooth, but this is even better,'” Stephens said. “I instantly remembered seeing the post somewhere. So, I come running up the beach, and I’m screaming, ‘I found it! I found it!’”
Greyson had a big smile talking about the special moment when Stephens returned the implant.
“I was just happy,” Greyson said.
Eleven-year-old Shawn Labonte from Quebec, Canada, was vacationing with his family at PirateLand Camping Resort. However, his mother said Shawn found Greyson’s second implant on the beach.
About four days later, he was grateful to return something so important to Greyson.
“It was a long shot, just to find the first one,” Ashley said. “But when we found the second one, as well — that was a miracle.”
“I walked many miles, looking for those things,” Justin Coffmon, Greyson’s father, said. “Again, that’s God, period.”
Another miracle: the Coffmons say both implants still work.